Went with a friend to Verizon, where she got a VX 4400 handset.
“Oooh, this one does ringtones,” I exclaim. C laughs and says she’ll have to get a Kare Kano ringtone for it. Hah! It’s a challenge. We’ll need to:
Find a source file.
Convert the source file to a ringtone.
Get the ringtone onto C’s phone.
Finding a [...]
From the media satire desk: FCC rescinds mandatory Metalica block rule. Country awaits radio ban on Lee Greenwood, and Toby Keith. [ Thanks to Avram ]
Certainly a new holiday classic:
We three pings don’t journey by car /
Through the net we travel so far / Hubs and switches / NOCs with glitches / Web surfing is so sub-par!
Following Jim and Glen’s lead: some of my favorite cover versions:
Earn Enough for Us, Freedy Johnston (XTC)
Happy Now, Barely Pink (Elvis Costello)
One Hundred Years from Now, Wilco (The Byrds)
Any Major Dude, Wilco (Steely Dan)
Don’t Break the Heart, Laura Cantrell (Amy Rigby)
Tear Off Your Own Head, The Bangles (Elvis Costello)
Well, You Needn’t, Thelonious Monk (The Articles)
Nina Paley’s new cartoon, The Sitayana, puts a whole new spin on the concept of the Bollywood musical.
I got to see it last Saturday night. It’s brilliant.
The NYTimes on two years after the introduction of the iPod. Interviews with Manhattan trendsetting clones “Andrew Andrew”, Apple’s Jonathan Ive, and Steve Jobs. Some insights into components and the end of ‘not invented here’. Consideration of market dominance as Dell introduces its MP3 player. [ Thanks Moshe! ]
Prentiss Riddle created a cool animation from photos he took of Glover Gill, who created the lovely tangos in Waking Life, performing in an Austin cafe.
John Scalzi has a fine entry on iTMS. But that’s not what I’m here to talk about.
I don’t know who Mandy Moore is. I’d never heard of her until John mentioned her cover of Joan Armatrading’s Drop the Pilot. So I fire up iTMS and look up her album Coverage.
She sings Senses Working Overtime. Holy [...]
Then there’s this other distorted media view of England, the one your local PBS affiliate may show in the 7-8pm timeslot on weekdays, where there’s no floppy hair and the accents are working class: Osymyso remixes Peg v. Pat from Eastenders.
Some days I feel like a minor character in someone else’s fanfic.
Yoko Kanno is to anime what Bernard Herman was to Hitchcock: a prolific film composer.
What’s remarkable is her diversity. She’s responsible for Tank! the hard-bop opening theme for Cowboy Bebop, the symphonic score for Vision of Escaflowne, as well as Escaflowne’s infectious J-Pop theme song, Yakusoku Wa Iranai (Promises Not Necessary).
I dare you to listen [...]
The BBC has a clip of a video Blur made for the call sign they composed for the UK’s Beagle 2 Mars lander. The band puts in an appearance at the end (in CGI space suits) to sing Far Out from Parklife. [ Real Player ]
Meanwhile, you must listen to There’s No Other Way from [...]
Warren Zevon died. Remembrances at Patrick Nielsen Hayden’s, Crooked Timber, and by Michael Swanwick.
He was our post-colonial Kipling, singing stories of expats and scoundrels:
I bought a first class ticket on Malaysian Air
Landed in Sri Lanka none the worse for wear
I’m thinking of retiring from all my dirty deals
See you in the next life, wake me [...]
[ via Ever Curious ] If Janis Joplin came back from the dead, she might sing this:
Oh, Lord, won’t you find me a WMD?
My friends won’t send forces, or money to me.
Looked hard under sand dunes; there’s nothing to see,
So Lord, won’t you find me a WMD?
Danny O’Brian discusses the BBC director general’s proposal to open their archives of 80 years worth of radio and TV to the public.
Just imaging having access to all of John Peel’s sessions….
More on this from Greg Dyke.
I’d be happy to pay a radio and TV tax for this… and I’m in the States.
Found out via the antic muse that the Pernice Brothers have a new album out. More lovely guitar pop mit harmony, please.
It’s not at the AppleMusic store yet, so you’ll have to go to eMusic.
